Zoe added: “You go through such a trauma and, right when you don’t think you could hurt any more, something like this happens.”

Rio, a pupil at Broadmoor Primary, was due to move up to Edgbarrow Secondary in September.

She died on Saturday, May 9, after being diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer just weeks earlier.

Rio was taken to Frimley Park Hospital near Camberley at the end of April where she was diagnosed with the illness.

Zoe said: “It felt like we had been stabbed in the heart.

“She was a really well-loved little girl, very independent, fun and easygoing. She was very clever and, I know that’s easy to say, but she was.

“Her brothers are very sporty and, bless her, she tried, but she was the brains of the family.”

She is survived by brothers Bobby, 15, and Harry, nine.

Rio, from a family of West Ham fans and named after former Hammers defender Rio Ferdinand, had been transferred to St George’s Hospital where Zoe and Rio’s dad Mark were told she had neuroblastoma – a rare cancer which had spread.

After an operation Rio, known to her friends as Rizzo, deteriorated rapidly.

Zoe said: “We got a call to say that it would be best if they turned her life support machine off.

“We agreed in the hope that we would be able to spend some time with her, but they didn’t even have time to turn off the machine before she died.

“Now I’m just ploughing myself into fundraising. We will always have to live with this but if we can take the pain away from another family, then that’s all we can do.

“The doctors at the PICU were amazing.”

A car boot sale will be held on Saturday, June 27, at Broadmoor Primary School and a family fun day on Saturday, August 15.

For more information on fundraising call Zoe on (01344) 779935.

- A man has been charged with theft and will appear before magistrates.